Tag: Food Security

Is Poverty invisible to those who don’t experience it? | Full Text

Introduction

In the Autumn of 2023, I embarked on a new adventure into higher education, driven by my building concern around Food Security issues and the certain reality that the UK is running the increasing risk of suddenly finding itself without sufficient food supplies for all of us to eat.

The journey that had taken me to a Postgraduate Course at the Royal Agricultural University in Cirencester at the age of 50 had been a long one. I very quickly began to feel as if I was meeting all of my accumulated experience head-on, quite literally by coming at it from the other direction. Or in what is the academic, abstract or theory-based way, as opposed to the predominantly experiential route my life has typically taken me before.

It was a mixed blessing. And whilst my concern that academia looks backwards to try and work out solutions for the future may have grown, I also experienced thinking of a kind which although restrained by the machinations of the UK’s current higher education environment, certainly helped me close that circle and helped me to view the difficult periods of my own story as one that I can fully appreciate and own.

One Module of my Course of Study was being trialed in a different way. The Course Tutors invited students to undertake what might be called a mini dissertation. Doing research on the real-life implications of poverty, with the suggestion that we might relate this research to our own life experience in some way.

With the childhood experience of being in poverty, it was not many moments before the opportunity to share something deep that might benefit others was flashing across my internal thought screen. And I was very happy to embrace the project with the aim of giving it everything that I have got.

The following pages represent the completion and submission of that work.

My final Report has been reprinted with only the details that could easily identify the personal information of those taking part removed.

The main body of the work has been adapted to form an e-book published on Amazon in June 2024 and has been reset with some very minor editing for the purpose of making this PDF available as a download from my Blog www.adamtugwell.blog in late 2024, and now as a full text version online in 2025.

I have shared this content, as the work has been assessed, marked and forms part of the Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security that I was awarded by the RAU in 2024.

After filming and publishing a video about Poverty in the UK which leaned heavily upon what I have learned and not least of all the understanding that You have to experience or be touched by Poverty to understand it, I have concluded that its relative popularity suggests that it will be helpful and of benefit to others if I were to publish the original (academic) work in different formats.

Poverty IS a problem that CAN be solved. It is a blight on UK society that simply shouldn’t exist. However, Poverty and our inadvertent acceptance of it is also symptomatic of the greater ills that we have to face, but which those so far untouched by Poverty are happy to avoid. Because to many, Poverty is something that happens only to other people, who are someplace else.

Thank you for reading and giving thought to what the realities of Poverty today really are.

Adam Tugwell

February 2025, Cheltenham. UK

The Structure of this Booklet

In as much as it can be, the content of this e-book reflects the structure of the academic submission that I made to the RAU in December 2023, as a requirement of my Postgraduate Course.

The process followed should be self-explanatory through Parts 1 – 3 of this Booklet.

Parts 1 – 3 are then followed by the Reference List and the 1st Appendix, which includes the list of questions that I asked as part of the research project you are about to read.

The References used include academic standard sources and it is possible that some of these may not be accessible to readers who are not currently studying or working within the UK Higher Education system, without paying a fee.

Where this is the case, and you would like to consider the wider work offered by those sources, it is likely that a full Internet search will identify alternative pathways and/or sources.

I make no apology for the ‘grey’ information referencing, such as links to pictures of mail-order catalogues and other such materials. I believe these can only be of help to someone reading about the 70’s and 80’s as a child in Poverty, without their own experience of it, attempting to picture the being there and ‘living it’ for the very first time.

AT

Part 1: How we perceive Poverty in the UK

Despite the heavily publicised cost of living crisis and 14.4 Million People in the UK living in Poverty in 2021/22 (HoC Library, April 2023), the perception that ‘poverty is something that happens to someone else’ remains prevalent.

Poverty is neither new nor a temporary phenomenon. William Beveridge’s 1942 Report suggesting ways the Government should rebuild after World War II identified Poverty as a major issue. Albeit one identified as consisting of five ‘Giant Evils’, namely ‘Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness’ (BBC, 2014) which are unrecognisable in the language of today.  

However, Poverty has been recorded as a social problem since at least the 18th century (King, 2000), with the first notable legislation relating to Poverty being The Henrican Poor Law of 1536. (JSTOR)

It was the early 19th century before recognition of the need for considered legislation (UK Parliament), when work was undertaken to ensure that poor families received a basic education (Adamson).

Despite documented history, contemporary thinking suggests denial of genuine poverty. MP and Deputy Chairman of The Conservative Party Lee Anderson recently referring to ‘poverty nonsense’, stating that ‘real poverty’ was something that existed in the 1970’s. (Independent, Oct 2023)

From theories underpinning Malthusianism, where the first documented attempts were made to explain the mechanics of Poverty (Harvey & Read, 1992) to current exponential growth of Foodbanks reaching a total of 2,572 across the UK (HoC Library, Oct 2023), there is a disconnect between evidence of Poverty and the perception of what Poverty is.

My own experience of Poverty

I grew up in a one parent family, without a dad until I was a teenager. My parents separated when I was 7 months old and I was 6 when my mother secured a 3 bed ‘council house’ so my brother and I could have rooms of our own.

This was before the Child Support Agency and my father never paid any form of maintenance. My mother, brother and I were dependent upon ‘Social Security’ and ‘Family Allowance’, collected weekly, when mum walked to the Post Office to ‘cash’ a ‘Giro’, before the ritual of immediately buying whatever we were out of, or replacing anything broken that couldn’t be secured in another way such as paying a small amount weekly using the Gratton catalogue (Vintage Catalogues).

Although conscious that money was ridiculously tight, I never felt like I was going without. I didn’t miss the things other people had. Because they were things that I’d never had.

We received free school meals, had free school milk (Eastern Daily Press, Jan 2006), regular School Uniform Vouchers and I recall an emergency grant from the DHSS so that I had a proper mattress to sleep on. Hand-me-down clothes were often as cherished as I feel now about something new.

The signs of parental struggle were hidden from view, until either a distant family member had to step in financially, whilst charging a heavy emotional price, or I became aware of the abnormality of what I considered normal, like getting myself up, ready and walking the mile to my junior school, because one of the ways mum coped was to stay in bed.

The day the electricity coin meter was removed was one of celebration. I knew there was no more risk of being sent out late on a cold night to knock on doors or ride my bike to the garage to change a note for some coins.

I’ve heard it said “Privilege is invisible to those who have it” (TED, 2015). And in the context of my own life, I question, ‘Is poverty invisible to those who do not experience it?’

Considering poverty in the UK today

I believe everything to be relative to the life experience each of us has.

From this perspective and the limitations of time and scope to complete this project, I felt the most effective way to compare my experiences with the realities of poverty in the UK today, was to speak to a professional dealing with Poverty daily. Someone who could provide an objective, first-hand view of what people in poverty are experiencing, as opposed to today’s ‘accepted’ view.

Although I recall a Christmas Food Parcel from the local Church as a child, there was no regular access to Foodbanks, which have only become prevalent in the past 15 years. (HoC, Oct 2023).

Foodbanks are the obvious change in Poverty since I was a child, and I concluded this would be the ideal focus for my research.

Part 2: My Interview at a Gloucestershire Foodbank

Overview of the Foodbank

The Gloucestershire Foodbank [GFB] is housed and governed by a local Church. GFB runs as a separate organisation under the Trussell Trust umbrella, using their referral pathways and quality frameworks.

GFB operates three sites of its own within a Gloucestershire Town area, with the Salvation Army operating a linked site in the Town.

Discovery (Questions asked, Please See Appendix 1)

I asked Interviewee A (IA), for an overview of their role and what the Foodbank does. (Q1)

IA said the “Principle is that its people who are in food crisis and needing immediate support with food.” GFBs work is about “Crisis support, rather than ongoing. However, what used to be a crisis is harder to get out of, so we see people more regularly than we used to.” (Q2)

“We provide an immediate food parcel that will support people for a minimum of three days and we also have Citizens Advice workers on site to provide ongoing support as well.” (IA, Q2)

The presence of Citizens Advice (CAB) on site was a surprise. CAB have been providing support for the past year and GFB would no longer continue without it. (Q2)

I then focused on the use of GFB (Questions 5 – 20). 2022/23 had been GFB’s busiest year ever with a 40% upsurge in use. Numbers had already exceeded the Covid peak (which had been the previous peak) (Q6)

Whilst the largest demographic of users are single males “Because they rarely qualify for anything else.” (IA, Q16), the most significant change in user numbers in the previous year had been a 95% increase in the number of Pensioners using GFB. (Q16)

The reasoning given by IA for the rise in numbers was “Things cost more. Basic stuff has increased hugely”. “People have seen their rents go up by at least a couple of hundred [Pounds].” “You get ‘no reason evictions’, because they [Landlords] want to put the rents up.” (IA, Q7). They then added, “There’s an increasing issue with debt, [it] exacerbates the issue further.”

The growth in the number of GFB users came primarily from the existing demographic, areas around the Town with significant social housing numbers. However, there had been an “Increase in referrals from everywhere, from people who are working and not working.” (IA, Q8) It was also notable that 10% of GFB users are working, with this number increasing. (Q8).

We moved to qualitative and experiential issues for GFB users. IA listed challenges with rent, challenges with benefits and sanctions (Q9). Debt repayment within the benefit system “Takes people over the edge with what they can manage.” (IA, Q9)

IA added, “It’s been really interesting with Citizens Advice [working on site]. They say, ‘If you work with people, you can get almost anyone out of that crisis point’. Because usually there was an [identifiable] cause of it. But there isn’t always now. Sometimes there just isn’t enough money to cover everything.” (IA, Q9)

Relating the perceptions of Poverty in the media, I asked about users abusing GFB. It was clear that whilst there is a small amount of abuse, this was attributable to people, where “Their survival technique is to work the system.” IA later added, “I don’t think for many people it would be, ‘This is the way I want to live’”. (IA, Q10).

Asked about the typical experiences of GFB users, IA was clear that those suffering food poverty would also be suffering fuel poverty [energy poverty] too, and that there are simple realities at work such as being unable to cook food without electricity or gas. (Q13)

Attempting to understand how IA perceived the view of the public, IA felt that there is a lot more public awareness than there used to be, and that lots of people really do care. (Q19).

When asked if they felt Politicians [and government] understood the need for Foodbanks, IA said “If you’ve never experienced life like that, it’s very difficult to know what it’s like to live hand to mouth, in that place of crisis.” IA then added, “The minute you are removed from the ground, it becomes theoretical.” (IA, Q18)

IA suggested the perception society has of food Poverty and the use of Foodbanks is key to any solution. IA was considerate of how the system [government] works, and felt that working with other organisations was key. IA said “If we work together, there’s a lot more hope than if people come through between different agencies.” (IA, Q17)

Foodbank users are apprehensive, feel shame, have a sense of failure and benefit from experiencing a ‘safe space’. (Q20). Foodbanks are most effective when they “Make people feel like they matter”. (IA, Q20)

Part 3: What I found – A critical review of the research, reflection and reporting process

My experience of this project was sobering. Although I lived with Poverty growing up, that experience was quickly put in the context of how a child in Poverty might feel today.

The role of cultural expectations, media advertising and the disproportionate influence of pester power on parents navigating Poverty was brought into sharp focus when IA said, “The one thing they [parents] don’t want is for their child to feel excluded again.” (Q14)

The comment took me to the experience of a schoolfriends visit to our home and being ridiculed the following week because we had a black and white TV [when it was ‘normal’ to have colour]. In no time at all, my mum did a deal with the TV repair man and bought an old colour ‘set’. One that had probably been condemned.

Whilst “The expectations of life have changed.” (Q14), it was clear the commonality in the experience of the effects of poverty, or what being in poverty feels like, are very much the same now, as when I was a child. Particularly as IA’s view of poverty was “It leaves people in a continual state of crisis, because even if there is money coming in, you are never quite sure there’s going to be enough. You are never able to have peace about the situation, so there is always that anxiety”. (IA, Q11).

I was right there, feeling Poverty, as a child. But when IA shared “If you want to move people into work, they need to be able to work; not just survive.” (Q15), I was able to relate a range of more recent life experiences too.

Is anything really different about the way we look at Poverty now?

The recognition of Poverty as a social problem from the 19th century onwards has encouraged growth in academic thinking and commentary.

Highly valued work such as Rawls ‘Veil of Ignorance’ (JSTOR, 1999) help identify that society lacks basic Poverty awareness, and that the solution will require people to think differently.

However, whilst highly regarded commentators like Daniel Chandler (Free & Equal, 2023) consider Rawls work to be groundbreaking, the use of changing perspective as a tool to instigate fairness through behaviour modification is not new. It is documented as the principle of ‘Divide and Choose’, and has references in Genesis, Chapter 13 and 1 Kings, Chapter 3. (King James Bible).

So, whilst such solutions may be ‘new’, they may only be original in so far as context or the subjectivity of the viewer is concerned.

The importance or relevance of context in understanding Poverty

It is striking that technical understanding or acknowledgement of Poverty is present throughout history, both anecdotally and documented form. Yet Poverty continues to exist.

Historically we had Workhouses and Paupers. As a child, we had ‘Social Security’, ‘Family Allowance’, Council Houses and Black, and White TV’s. Today we have Universal Benefit, Benefits sanctions, Social Housing and Xboxes.

The tools Poverty uses to touch lives are forever changing. But the impact of Poverty remains the same.

The lived experience of Poverty reflects the time and how the world around us operates.

The tools Poverty inflicts harm with can be so different, that a different language is required to fully elucidate and contextualise the lived experience of Poverty at that moment in time.

Yet knowing only this may prevent translation of the message about Poverty, that everyone needs to hear.

The experience of visiting GFB and reflecting on what I learned made clear that when an individual is not experiencing the specifics of Poverty, in that moment, even when that individual has first-hand past experience of living in poverty and arguably therefore has the ability to relate to it very well, they can and will view Poverty in a mechanical way. Rather than the emotional way that is only possible for those enduring the lived experience at that time.

I agree with IA, that “The minute you are removed from the ground, it becomes theoretical.” (IA, Q18)

Rreflections on Poverty in the UK today

I have become aware that:

  1. The technical existence of Poverty is widely accepted, but its impact and reach is not.
  2. The interpretation of Poverty is relative to the understanding of the viewer or those experiencing it.
  3. Poverty is itself is highly subjective and constantly evolving.
  4. Because the universal acceptance of Poverty is technical, no official effort is made to understand what lived experience of Poverty really is, leading to public policy solutions that make the subjective or experiential nature of Poverty considerably worse.
  5. Poverty requires a permanent solution that is objective and universal, that fully considers the subjective elements that make lived experience of Poverty real.

Whilst models for modifying collective and individual behaviour to create change exist, (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975), it is clear the need for change must be accepted before change is possible.

Regrettably, the historic tolerance of Poverty indicates an ongoing resistance to that change.

Within the current system, paradigm or ‘the way the world works’, self-interest is an embedded value. The relationship with the value of money is prevalent in everything. Whether conscious or not, the mindset is for some to be rich; others must be poor.

It is also notable that academic work and commentary considered helpful by identifying alternative approaches, economic models, and the use of tools such as Universal Basic Income may also hinder progress. It has become common for solutions tabled on the basis of instigating voluntary change at a universal level, when that change can only create a difference within the restrictions of the existing paradigm and how today’s world and economic system works.

Ending Poverty is possible. But the need to do so is not widely accepted.

The level of change necessary to end Poverty at the objective level, rather than merely seeking to alleviate Poverty at the current technical level is one that must be appreciated objectively through a process of valuing it at the subjective and experiential level too.

The proponents of that change must be fully accepting of the universal consequences of that change.

The journey to end Poverty for everyone begins with the question of how we make the consequences of lived experience of Poverty something that everyone understands.

In Conclusion

On the basis of life experience and what I have learned about Poverty in the UK today, I conclude that the true impact of Poverty IS invisible to those who don’t experience it.

 

References:

The Beveridge Report, National Archives, 1942

A brief history of the Poverty Line, Adamson

Cheltenham Foodbank (Website)

Elim Church, Cheltenham (Website)

Foodbanks in the UK, Research Briefing, House of Commons Library, Oct 2023

Free and Equal, Chandler, 2023 (Book)

The History of school milk schemes, Eastern Daily Press, Jan 2006

Households Below Average Income: an analysis of the UK income distribution: FYE 1995 to FYE 2022, DWP, August 2023

The King James Bible (King James Version)

Lee Anderson plays down ‘poverty nonsense’, saying 1970s was ‘real poverty’, The Independent, 3 October 2023

Measuring Child Poverty, UNICEF, Innocenti Research Centre, Report Card 10, 2012

The Origins of Modern Social Legislation: The Henrican Poor Law of 1536, Kunze, JSTOR, 1971

Paradigms of Poverty: A Critical Assessment of Contemporary Perspectives, Pg5, Harvey & Read, JSTOR, 1992

Poverty and The Poor Law, UK Parliament

Poverty and Welfare in England 1700 -1850, A Regional Perspective, King, 2000

Poverty in the UK: Statistics, House of Commons Library, April 2023

A Theory of Justice: Revised Edition, Rawls, JSTOR, 1999

The Theory Of Reasoned Action, Fishbein And Ajzen, 1975

Vintage Catalogues, Gratton (Website)

Why Gender Equality is Good for Everyone – men included, Kimmel, TED, 2015

William Beveridge 1879 -1963, BBC History, 2014

Appendix: My Questions

  1. Please could you just confirm your name, role and that you are happy for this interview to be recorded?
  2. Please could you talk me through what you do here and how the Cheltenham Foodbank works?
  3. Why was the Cheltenham Foodbank established and what were the initial aims that were set out to achieve?
  4. Are the aims of the Cheltenham Foodbank any different now?
  5. How many people are you helping each week?
  6. Have you experienced any changes in numbers of users?
  7. What factors do you consider to have influenced the change in numbers of users?
  8. Where do your foodbank users come from?
  9. What are the typical experiences that your foodbank users are having?
  10. Do you believe that Foodbanks are being abused?
  11. How would you describe poverty today?
  12. Is it possible to measure poverty and if so, how?
  13. What do you consider to be the most common factors amongst people experiencing food poverty?
  14. Do you think that poverty in general has changed?
  15. Does the benefit system genuinely support poor and vulnerable people?
  16. What kind of people are seeing at the foodbank regularly?
  17. What could be done to remove the need for Foodbanks?
  18. Do you think politicians understand the need for Foodbanks?
  19. Do you think the wider public understand the need for Foodbanks?
  20. What are the impacts of the experience of using a foodbank on users?
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The need for a collaborative approach to the UK Farming and Food Security Problem

Watching the stories unfold around UK Farming and Food Security is as frustrating as it is concerning for these following significant reasons:

  1. The Government isn’t going to change course on its overall relationship with UK Farms and Farming. Even if some media friendly concessions are made. Much like two of the UK Supermarket chains this week making public announcements that they support our Farmers over the Inheritance Tax issue, whilst at the same time taking no action to create genuine change that would help Farmers to receive an income that reflects the role that they have as a Key player in the Food Chain.
  2. Farmers are committed to ‘changing unchangeable minds’. Because of the way that the Agricultural Marketplace and the systems feeding in and out of it have been deliberately manipulated over a period exceeding 50 years.
  3. There is an industry-wide dependency upon subsidies and contract production/trading arrangements that effectively surrendered the control of UK Farms and Farming to the establishment (primarily EU ‘modelling’) and big business, which has resulted in a cultural deprogramming of some of the most creative and entrepreneurial mindsets to exist within the SME, operational business world.
  4. A situational bias exists within the UK Farming community, UK agricultural academia, UK Farming advocacy organisations and the industry media and commentariat, where the solutions to the problems that many freely elucidate and the outcomes that they desire are only considered within or relating to the structure of the existing economic paradigm and cultural deference that the general UK population has to the Public Sector, NGOs, Government, Politicians and public figures, or those in ‘a position of responsibility’ or influence.
  5. The reluctance or objection to ‘going a different way’ that adheres to UK legal requirements, but is itself not led or reliant upon government, the public sector or any industry bodies that are heavily influenced by them, is based purely upon the idea that Farmers themselves taking responsibility for investing in either the diversification of their own enterprises or collectively with other local or like businesses, will offer unacceptable levels of financial risk. Whereas waiting for the government, public sector, industry bodies and those businesses like Supermarkets to ‘wake up’ and ‘invest to save UK Farming’ will not.
  6. The latent pool of knowledge, experience and understanding that exists within the Farming community, throughout agricultural academia and the supporting sectors, has the ability to offer industry changing outcomes that would quickly return Farming and Food Production to the central role within UK Communities that it traditionally had, and still should. Based on the reality that Food is as essential as Air to breathe and Water to drink for every person, each and every day.
  7. Those members of the wider Farming community with platforms and voices to be heard remain focused on promoting the issues, solutions and outcomes as their own view and experience enables them to see them. Too often overlooking the reality that there are profound threads of commonality between every one of them which are all too often being overlooked, as the default position is for everyone to focus on what is ‘right’, only for them.
  8. This was the situation a year ago. A year before that and so on. IHT has just focused the imagination of more people than before. But could prove counterproductive.

It doesn’t stop there. But going into further reams of detail will not help anyone who is not open to the collaborative, community approach that has now become necessary for UK Farming to evolve and regenerate itself into a model of working and operation that will not just allow it to survive. But actually thrive.

As an experienced business leader who spent 12 years in frontline politics after being a local government officer and senior charity manager, then embarking on a research and thought journey that took me to complete a PGCert in Sustainable Ag and Food Security at the RAU, I have a perspective on what is happening that doesn’t conform to stereotype to say the very least.

Whilst I have written extensively about the Food Security situation, attempted to broaden others perspectives on how the Food Chain really works, suggested a way to use the issues with Red Tractor to launch a new Food Quality and Provenance Assurance Scheme to begin a revolution in UK Farming and focused on the role of Local Food Chains with the Community in the Future, I have been doing so purely with the intent of opening a door.

The door I am referring to opens to the room of collaboration and discourse where using everything as we are doing it and know it, is left behind. Because this all represents the past, and what whoever or whatever is really driving all the problems that UK Farming faces wants to happen and intends to be in place.

Although I made my misgivings clear about the aims and approach of No Farmers No Food from the start and have seen nothing yet to suggest that they are anything other than a problem awareness raising vehicle, I keep a close eye. Hoping that something will change and a touchpaper or catalyst might appear that will at least begin to bring the different ideas, views and suggested solutions together in a way that opens every mind to learning from each other’s views and most importantly, leaves the egos behind.

In a tweet yesterday, No Farmers No Food, talked up the value of marketing boards as many will remember them with the inference or suggestion that they could be of great help to UK Farming, if they were to exist now.

It was one of the rare occasions when I felt that I wanted to respond, seeing that there are principles that could be highly beneficial in the fight to save UK Farms and Food Security today, depending upon the approach taken and what the model of such organisations would be and how they would operate today.

I haven’t focused on ‘marketing boards’ in anything like the historic sense. In no small part as their demise arguably led and fed into many of the problems that the industry faces today. Because the platform they offered was not protected as it should have been by government and the public sector, and was in no small way exploited by a range of different profit driven organisatons for the levels of financial gain which have led to the crippling financial straightjacket that UK Farming now finds itself in.

However, Hector Wetherell McNeill from the George Boole Foundation Limited replied and and linked a paper to my tweet that they have recently published titled ‘Agricultural Commodity Marketing Boards’, which you will find if you follow this link HERE.

I’m grateful that Hector responded as he has done. As whilst I would suggest there is a broader picture to consider that I have touched upon in the points above, and I don’t believe that marketing boards are in and of themselves a solution to the mess that UK Farming is now in, there are a number of very valuable points and suggestions made that could be massively helpful within a cooperative operational business or some kind that has a system of governance that runs locally and outside the influence of any of the usual suspects that quickly come to mind.

I would certainly be supportive of the discussion group idea that the proposal discusses and feel sure that the communication technology that is now readily available could be used to create a discussion and ideas sharing platform that could prove to be game-changing indeed.

I will end here by saying only that there are no politicians and no political party that exists today that can or will be able to make the changes to the UK Farming industry that only Farmers and the businesses that are aligned with the sector can and have the power to do so themselves.

The only thing that is really stopping UK Farming from making the changes that are now needed is the recognition that the power to make those changes rests only with UK Farmers themselves.

Many thanks again to Hector and best wishes to you all.

Adam

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Is the Collapse of UK Farming and Food Security now inevitable?

From the position where I am looking at everything UK Farmers and the supporting businesses and sectors around them now face, I regrettably believe that a collapse of UK Farming and our Food Chain is now inevitable.

The accelerating downward trajectory of UK Farming will not be stopped until events take over, or the majority of UK Farmers step back and see everything they face differently.

Quite a statement I know. Not least of all because it flies in the face of a great many names that the industry respects, whom I have no personal quarrel with.

Somewhat disconcertingly, despite the bubbles of different interests that exist across the industry; when it comes to the answers, solutions and whatever we can expect to happen next, everyone – other than perhaps just a few like me – is looking the very same way.

Expectation vs Reality

Farmers, Farmers membership and advocacy organisations and even No Farmers No Food expect the problems the industry has to be solved by the same people and organisations that not only caused them, but are accelerating the problems being experienced right now.

Few Farmers agree with what I have to say. Because those who are Farming today typically see Farming, the role of Farming and how Farming is being treated by industry and government in a very different way.

To be fair, I wouldn’t expect anything else. Farmers are far from being alone when it comes to the questions over what we know, what we believe and what is normal to expect from the businesses and organisations that we have relationships with and most importantly, the people that we elect.

However, it really shouldn’t be hard for anyone to stop, step back and remember that what we see and what is happening can be very different things.

Power of the political and financial kind has always been open to abuse. Many will have heard the expression ‘Give them bread and circuses’ that dates to Roman times and demonstrates how the public have always been ‘played’. So that those in power can reduce the risk to their position, no matter what might be going on.

Unfortunately, we are navigating a period of human history where manipulation in the forms of marketing, narratives and fear rolled out in many peculiar forms, is used very effectively to create a situation where any one of us can find ourselves questioning our own common sense and what we actually believe.

The internet, smart phones and the arrival of the most recent forms of Artificial Intelligence have made the problem all the more severe.

The reality that we do question what we can trust at least peripherally has the rather perverse outcome for many of making it even more likely that we will trust people and organisations, because of who they are and how their roles are presented to us, when we really shouldn’t be doing anything other than steering a wide berth from anything they say or compel us to do.

In real terms, this means that anyone, including Farmers, no matter how well educated or experienced, is likely to believe and accept as truth whatever those benefitting from whatever is happening to each and every Farm want us or that Farmer to believe.

And they sure don’t like it when anyone questions the validity of what they say and what is likely to just be a partial truth might be.

What is really ‘in play’ today?

The attack on UK Farming didn’t begin on 30th October, when The Chancellor unveiled the assault on Inheritance Tax Relief on the generational transfer of working Family Farms.

What it did herald however, was the step of taking the war to destroy UK Food Production as we have known it, into the open. Instead of the whole thing being hidden in plain sight, as it has been for decades before.

They have done this:

Either because the politicians we have and those who advise or influence them are now confident enough that the industry no longer has the clout or leverage to stop them.

Or more likely, because they are now desperate to contain the threat of power being returned to the Farmers themselves.

(Because the whole system that has been working and undermining everything for greed, profit and control since the early 70’s has now reached a point where the economic system that underpins it could collapse, and they could lose their control at any time.)

The outcry from the general public over Farmers IHT has taken the political classes more than a little by surprise.

They believed that the accompanying narrative that ‘Farmers must pay their way like everyone else’ would very quickly resonate with the general public. Given that the left has always happily propagated myths like ‘You never see a poor Farmer’.

What the establishment didn’t expect was a predominantly visceral response from so many different people. Where instincts have told even those not consciously thinking about it that any attack on Farming isn’t about Farming. It’s actually an attack on our Food.

Is Farming really about self-interest or public interest?

Regrettably, this is where maintaining the momentum for supporting Farmers becomes tricky. Because many Farmers see their businesses as being all about income and profit. In a similar way, if not in the very same sense as the politicians do.

With what seems impeccable timing and within a month of the Budget announcement, an initiative landed on social media that informed anyone watching that a new methane-reducing feed supplement initiative is about to be launched and underway using Farms that are contracted into the corporate system.

The relationship between Farms and a processor suggests that this isn’t a matter of choice.

So, it didn’t come as any great surprise that the issues raised by the implications of ‘playing god with natural processes’ would immediately create a new division between those who ‘cannot’ say no to such ‘trials’, because of the financial implications of doing so, and those who see and are at least beginning to question the vein of commonality flowing through every attack on UK Farming.

The last minutes of a VERY long game

Whether its supermarket prices, chemical additive use required by processors, the freeing up of capital that invested in Land and Farms through new punitive taxes, the disintegrating financial support from government and the public sector, or the bureaucracy that has steadily transformed everything since our membership of the deliberately flawed Common Market and latterly The EU began, they all have a war on the ability of the UK  and more importantly our communities to run and thrive independently with Food in common at their very core.

In the world we are now being shoehorned into, Money talks and bullshit quite literally walks.

Food Production as we traditionally know it, is the antithesis of everything that those controlling our lives and businesses want and represent.

Who am I and why am I presenting a different understanding of the status quo?

I realise and understand why few can see or even agree with what I am saying here and what I write, speak and publish about Food, Farming and Food Security – amongst many other public policy related things.

Before 12 years in frontline politics, roles in professional charity leadership and years of being an entrepreneur and living the highs and traumatising lows of being in and around businesses, I began my career in farming – where I always had a strong affiliation with the Dairy Sector and made many friendships as a Young Farmer that I maintain to this day.

Farming and specifically Agri-contracting is a big thing within my wider family and beyond the proud heritage of my grandfather being a highly skilled wheelwright and pioneer in hydraulic farm trailer manufacturing, my great grandfather was a steam ploughman too.

My active interest in politics, or rather my driving belief in something better for everyone, in public service and for community working has been at the centre of so much of what I have done and what I still do.

That interest has taken me on a path that led me to appreciate how important the independence of local Food Chains to Our Future will now be. But also, to spend time completing a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security at the Royal Ag, where my fears about the position and outlook of the industry and where it is being led were starkly confirmed and amplified.

The watershed UK Farming is now within

It is difficult for anyone thinking rationally or logically to believe the realities and mechanics of the position that Farming and the wider economy now find themselves in.

Not because of the expertise and knowledge that is there to be tapped into by those who need it suggests otherwise.

But because nothing that is happening to Farming, to people or in politics at any level across the UK as we know it today, is in any way that which it seems.

I’m sure that you will agree it is more than likely that anyone questioned would at least admit that they believe something is going very wrong. Even if they cannot or would not try to identify what that something is.

In the few days after the Budget bombshell was dropped, I began writing ‘Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future’, in an attempt to open up the reality of what is happening and why within the UK Food Chain.

I did so in what does today feel like the forlorn hope that at least some of the people and businesses that I care so deeply about would at the very least conduct a review of what they currently believe to be true.

Within ‘Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future’, I discussed the strange but nonetheless compelling ‘situational bias’ that is holding us back from looking at anything and everything differently to what we already know and do.

Because we have trapped ourselves with the belief that we can only trust the sources, systems, procedures, businesses, organisations and news channels that we already know.

It is this situational bias that today presents the greatest risk to the future of UK Farming and with it the UKs Food Security and our Food Supply.

All of which should quite rightly be placed at the heart and function of our Local Communities and everything that we know.

Sadly, most of us still believe that the mind of Politicians can be changed politically. When the game that they are playing and which the politicians and those who control them have framed, isn’t politics at all.

By continuing to engage in any way that shows deference to them and their system and their way of working, rather than just sticking to the basic level of adherence to the rules which the current way of working requires that we all respect, the power of change and control over our future remains firmly in their hands.

The option to save UK Farming and with it our Food Security and a future that will give us all much more besides exists.

But it is also a journey and process where there isn’t politics of the kind that Westminster controls involved.

Play it their way or play it our way.

The Food that UK Farmers can produce is a key part of Our Future. But the choice of whether Farms end up at the centre of that future, or die without anyone other than the politicians themselves knowing why is for Farmers to decide.

Like everything. Its all about the way that we think.

Will Farmers advocates, membership representatives and activists make Inheritance Tax the hill that the future of U.K. Food Security dies on?

Uncomfortable to read as it may be, the well-known membership and advocacy organisations that supposedly enjoy ‘real’ influence on government and the other layers of ‘The Food Chain Onion’, and purportedly represent their members interests before anything else, are actually just players in an establishment game.

The officers and leaders amongst them value the access or relationships that they have with government departments, politicians and representatives above everything and to a level where they will not do anything that will risk those relationships.

When the wishes of the advocacy and membership organisations are aligned with what the government of the time is doing, we can be sure that industry representatives will walk away with what appear to be some great wins.

Just as they will appear to do so when the aims aren’t aligned and the politicians will make some sort of concession so that they can misrepresent and link to other issues that they will not rescind on.

This may regrettably yet prove to be the case with Inheritance Tax and linking it to UK Food Security. Just so that a narrative can be created that the UK Food Security issue has been solved with the intent that it heaps together all the issues Politicians and Government Departments don’t want to deal with, and builds the spurious narrative that ‘The Food Security problem is now solved’.

Although we can all be sure that representatives of these Organisations make very reasoned representations to those they meet and communicate with, they also take any reassurances and promises they obtain at face value.

They regrettably fall back on the way of thinking that ‘It’s just the way it is’ and that it is better and more beneficial to be ‘in the tent’ than to do anything that would risk their position, and might stop them from being allowed back in. As many smaller less well known organisations will have tried to their cost.

Advocacy isn’t working and isn’t going to work, because you cannot reason with those who are unreasonable

In many cases without even understanding why they are being unreasonable, our politicians and the officers and public sector representatives that surround them only see reason in doing and pursuing the public policies and actions that they believe to be best for everyone, whilst actually only doing what’s best for them.

Populist ‘activism’ and their current approaches

In the case of activist ‘organisation’ No Farmers No Food, whose yellow branding with the black silhouette tractor is capturing support, they are certainly well-meaning and led by good intention.

However, like the advocacy and membership organisations that are in The Food Chain mix, they are also missing the point that the best people to solve the problem aren’t the same ones that caused it.

And the problem we are all facing is much bigger than lots of talking and protesting about whatever gets traction in the media and appears to stick.

The priority of UK Politics today simply isn’t UK Farming and Food Security

In respect of Government and the Politicians we are dealing with, the faces and the branding might have changed in July. But the motives and the direction that drives them is very much the same as those who were in Power before.

As I write and publish in November 2024, there is nobody and no political movement or party out there in the Public realm that has the ability, system-wide understanding or the properly reasoned intent to tackle and change any of the problems we face, when the next General Election in the UK comes. Whether its within months OR in 5 years’ time.

This is a very serious problem for us all.

Understanding Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future –Everything You Need to Know
The Local Economy & Governance System | Online Text
The need for a collaborative approach to UK Farming PDF_Vers1_25Mar25Download
Food From Farms Guaranteed_PDF_Vers2_13Mar25Download
Farmers Advocates and IHT 18Nov24 PDF_Vers1_26Nov25Download

Why UK Food Security depends on supporting UK Farmers

The seemingly constant talk about the Farmers’ Protest March that is being held in London on Tuesday 19th March certainly appears to have captured many of our thoughts.

The Farmers Inheritance Tax changes that were introduced in the 2024 Budget in October are certainly set to have a BIG impact upon UK Farming as we know it.

But whilst it’s easy to argue that Farmers should be subject to the same taxes as everyone else, we must all remember that we need at least 2x healthy meals a day to survive, and that Food and our access to it is therefore just as important as the air that we breathe and the water that we drink.

Food Production and UK Farms that are supplying fresh, nutritious, Locally Produced Food are as such a Public Good.

Their existence is essential for this reason and there must be support for Farmers – just like all different kinds of businesses have that are focused only on profit – so that they can stay that way.

The change in the Budget tells us that Politicians don’t see the future role of our Farms that way.

So, it is important that all of us – whether we are Consumers, Farmers or both – understand what is really going on across the UK Food Chain that is making Politicians believe that the direction of Food Production and UK Food Security is not only safe, but also good for everyone and fundamentally OK.

The link below will take you to the full online text of Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future, which is also a Free to Download PDF and an e-book for Kindle (£1.99 in the UK from Amazon) which runs through the complexity and layers of The Food Chain, and the truths that are hidden in plain sight, from our everyday view.

There’s a lot to consider, no matter what we already know or the particular or perhaps ‘informed’ perspectives that we all have. So please do find the time if you can to have a look through, as you are likely to have a lot more questions of your own about why we are not giving priority to UK Food Production and the importance of Our Farms when you do.

Thank you for your interest and support.

#food #FoodSecurity #FarmersProtest #farmers #farming #foodchain

To download a FREE PDF Copy of Who Controls Our Food Controls Our Future, Please CLICK HERE. Alternatively, if you would like to download the Book for Kindle at £1.99 (UK Price), please follow the link through to Amazon that follows immediately below: